


The Plan

by Chrononautical



Series: Endless Apocrypha [6]
Category: Lucifer (TV), The Sandman (Comics)
Genre: Fate, Gen, God has a Plan, but why do people always think it's a good one?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-01
Updated: 2017-03-01
Packaged: 2018-09-27 18:13:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10037852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chrononautical/pseuds/Chrononautical
Summary: Amenadiel goes to Destiny for advice. He gets some.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I have always been fascinated by Destiny of the Endless, mostly with the way he refrains from reading ahead in his book. As the eldest and most serious son, he has a lot in common with Amenadiel. I thought that he might have guidance to offer. I hope you enjoy it.

“All labyrinths are one labyrinth. All mazes meet in the center. There is a portion of space that all labyrinths share, a space common to every place in which paths fork and join and diverge once more.” - Sandman, Brief Lives, Chapter 7

Amenadiel had erred. In helping his mother to break Lucifer’s heart, to ensure that the pain was too much for his brother to endure, it was possible that he had erred again. Uncomfortably aware that he had chafed to the point of sin after five years of a duty his brother had managed for eons, Amenadiel could no longer trust to his own pride. Yet innocence once lost was gone forever. He could not return to putting blind faith in his Father’s plan. Hypocritical though it might be, he could not believe in the unseen as a human must. 

Ironic, perhaps, but the first of God's angels had lost faith. Yet for the first time since his altercations with his brother, his relationship with Maze, and the erroneous resurrection of the unfortunate Malcolm, he wanted to find it again. He wanted to find his path.

With no way of knowing God's will and no way of trusting his mother, Amenadiel had only one foolish idea. He would seek out his Destiny. 

The Peace Awareness Gardens were like many earthly gardens. Amenadiel favored them no more or less than any other space humans might set aside to meditate and seek the divine. However, they did have a labyrinth. Granted, it was made of stone tiles and had no walls, but that made it no less a labyrinth. 

Stepping onto the first tile, Amenadiel walked the path. Losing himself in the maze even as he found the way to his destination. It was easy enough once you knew the trick. He did not need his angelic powers to traverse between these worlds; any human could make the journey, though few did. After a few steps, the labyrinth had walls. After a few choices, the walls became hedges. After a careful turning, the hedge maze opened up into a spectacular garden. A proper garden. A garden where every blade of grass grew in its rightful place according to a divine plan. 

The Garden of Destiny was not home, but Amenadiel took a long moment to breathe deep and appreciate the beauty of the place. All angels found peace in order, but he was not there to rest. He continued his search. 

Destiny was not hard to find in the end. He was where he always was: walking the paths of his garden, reading the pages of his book. Amenadiel did not get in the way. Standing to one side of the path, he bowed low and offered a greeting. 

“Hail, Lord Destiny, Eldest of the Endless, I come seeking counsel.”

Amenadiel was prepared to receive no answer. All that happened, all that would ever happen, was written on the pages of Destiny's Book. He did not stop reading for just any visitor. Great though Amenadiel’s pride was, he did not think himself more interesting than the whole of creation. Yet he had come in hope, and he was not disappointed. 

Destiny stopped walking, turned his blind eyes up from the massive tome, and spoke. “Well met, Amenadiel, Lost But Not Yet Fallen.”

The air left Amenadiel’s lungs. That title was not one he had heard before. When his wings moulted, even as Lucifer’s skin had once burnt, he’d thought himself past the point of redemption. Destiny’s greeting alone was enough to give him hope that heaven was not entirely lost to him. Amenadiel had been right to seek his wisdom. 

“You know why I have come.” It was not a question. “I wish to understand my father’s plan.” 

“That is not possible.” Destiny did not say this unkindly. He merely spoke as though stating a fact. “I have spent my whole life reading the story and even now there are surprises. Parts I did not understand the importance of eons ago only now slotting into place. It is a good story. There are parts that I may never understand. Only the Creator can truly comprehend every aspect of his creation.”

Amenadiel took a deep breath. Even now it shook him to voice aloud his doubts.”How do you know that it is written? How do you know that the words do not appear in your book moments before you read them?”

“They do,” Destiny said, answering more graciously than Amenadiel deserved. “That is the nature of the book: it is fixed. What is written is what has come to pass and what definitely will come to pass. However, there is free will. You might attack me with a dagger right now in a fit of righteous fury. The choice you make in the garden today is not written.” 

“Then how can you know that there is a plan?” Amenadiel did not attack Destiny, he did not even hold Destiny responsible for the unsatisfying answer, but he could not deny feeling a righteous fury indeed.

“Because there is the garden,” Destiny said simply. 

Looking around at the carefully cultivated plants and paths calmed Amenadiel. “What do you mean?” 

“You might stab me. You might yell and rail against the very nature of creation. You might kill yourself. You might close your eyes and walk away. You might lie down in the grass for a hundred years unmoving. You might knock over that statue of my brother just for want of something less predictable to do. What you do is not written, but every path you might take is here. Every path anyone might take is here, in my garden.” 

Amenadiel nodded slowly. “Do you think it’s a good plan?” 

“Who am I to judge?”

“Please. Please, I need help. I don’t know what to do.”

Destiny regarded him thoughtfully. Amenadiel remembered the speculation that Destiny was not truly blind, but simply able to see far too much at once. He wondered what Destiny saw, looking at him. 

“You might stay here and tend the garden. That is a choice that some make, and I would allow it.” 

Amenadiel’s heart soared as though his wings had been reformed and all his power returned. It was not the Silver City. It was not home, but he could be happy in the Garden of Destiny. Life would be peaceful. Orderly. He could work the paths of Destiny without worrying about his own. Staying would mean giving up on the Silver City entirely. Staying would mean giving up on Maze, his mother, and Lucifer as well. He did not fool himself by dreaming otherwise. Not yet fallen implied that there was something he could do to rise again, but he would need to risk that fall to regain his place in God’s love. Staying in the garden would be safest. Staying in the garden would be his best chance for happiness.

“Will it harm others if I remain here? My family, Maze, Dr. Linda, will my absence impact their choices profoundly?” 

“Every life is affected by every other life.” 

“Please,” he begged again. The first of God’s angels was proud, but he had come to the Garden of Destiny to swallow that pride. “Please, I need guidance.” 

Destiny seemed to know what it cost Amenadiel to ask. Of course he did. Destiny knew all that there was to know. “Have you ever wondered what will happen when Chloe Decker dies?” 

Shaking his head a little, Amenadiel admitted that he had not. “She’s lived a good life. She’ll go to heaven.” 

“And then?”

Amenadiel blinked. “Armageddon,” he breathed.

There could be no question that Lucifer would follow her to the gates of the Silver City. He had sworn never to return to hell, but the moment Chloe’s life was in danger, he’d gone down without hesitation. So it would be with heaven. Amenadiel had almost convinced himself that it would do no harm to return to the Silver City with Mother and Lucifer, but Lucifer could not go back. Even a human child knew what would happen when the devil returned to the place he was eternally barred from. Lucifer himself knew it well enough. That was why he had been so resistant to Mother’s plan. That, and his desire to remain on earth. With Chloe. Reason would hold no sway once God took Chloe away. Lucifer would return to heaven and there would be war. A war between heaven and hell to destroy all between. 

“Is that Father’s plan?! To let Lucifer know love after so long only to snatch it away and jumpstart the End Times? It is unjust! Even I know Lucifer well enough to know how he will react to that. Father leaves him no choice at all!” Perhaps Amenadiel would go back. Perhaps he would join his brother, powerless as he was, and march at his side against the Heavenly Host. Only a coward would stand by and let such machinations run their course.

“As I said, I do not know the Plan, only what is written, but I see many paths.” 

“The paths you see are overgrown and full of stones. Lucifer will not walk them. Any choice you think he has is an illusion.” 

“If he faces it alone, yes. However, there is one who might speak to him in that moment. One who might understand. An angel who knows what it is to love where he should not have. A brother who was also cast from heaven unjustly. An ally who has fought at his side more than once specifically to protect Chloe Decker. From that one, and only that one, Lucifer Morningstar might hear an alternative course of action.” 

All of Amenadiel’s own trials came into focus, and he understood why he had been made to suffer. Suffering was a crucible, and he had been transformed within Lucifer’s sight into a potential companion. He wanted to argue that Lucifer had other confidants, but he could not. Maze would see a war with heaven as a perfectly reasonable option. Any demon would. For all Amenadiel knew, this had always been Mother’s plan. Even Dr. Linda with her newfound acceptance of Lucifer’s true nature might look at a confrontation between Lucifer and Father as a healthy emotional expression, not that which was foretold in the book of Revelations.

He could never have changed as he needed to under orders from the Word. Amenadiel had to come to care more about Lucifer than he did about obeying, or his brother would never have trusted him. Suddenly, Amenadiel’s understanding of the Plan compounded and his mind expanded to encompass this new knowledge. Enlightenment was a strange experience for a being older than the human race, but he embraced it.

“Thank you,” he said.

“You will go back.” It was not a question.

“Yes, but I appreciate the choice.”


End file.
